


Epidemiology Revisited

by prettyinblue



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Halloween, M/M, Trobed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-16
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:13:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25928698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prettyinblue/pseuds/prettyinblue
Summary: Troy and Abed watch Star Wars and notice something familiar. They won't rest until they discover why it's connected to last year's Halloween.
Relationships: Troy Barnes & Abed Nadir, Troy Barnes/Abed Nadir
Comments: 4
Kudos: 73





	Epidemiology Revisited

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place during season 3 of Community. The S2 episode 'Epidemiology' is mentioned. Hope you like it!

The dean had just announced that a Halloween Dance would take place the following week and everyone was talking about costumes.  
“I bet Jeff will come to the party wearing the same clothes he’s wearing today” Britta complained about Jeff’s constant lack of motivation for Halloween costumes. He looked at her and sighed.  
“Well, at least I won’t spend $200 on something I will wear only for one night.”  
“Oh, shut up, Jeff. Halloween is about fun! And dressing as you want. Right guys?” Annie asked the group, followed by affirmative answers.  
“Troy” Abed ignored the rest. “We have to cosplay Inspector Spacetime this year.”  
“Stop reading my mind.” Troy smiled. He was thinking about doing the same thing.  
“Look at those nerds” Pierce observed. “Again with Inspector space-something”  
“I think it’s nice that the boys are creative.” Shirley defended them.  
“I think that they are 20 something-year-olds that would go trick or treating if we didn’t have this party” Jeff joked.  
“Jeff!” The three women in the group yelled at him.  
“Leave them alone.”  
“It’s okay, Annie, we know Jeff is not serious,” Abed said to her. “He’s a nerd too, but he doesn’t want to admit it.”  
“Just because I watched Star Wars in the cinema doesn’t mean that-”  
“Abed, that’s it” Troy interrupted Jeff. “What about a Star Wars marathon to celebrate our monthiversary of living together.”  
Annie and Shirley uttered a loud “Aww” as a response.  
“Yes! Later let’s buy popcorn and potato chips. I have the DVDs somewhere in the apartment. I’ll have everything ready for tomorrow.”  
“Great. Oh and also we need to buy toilet paper. Can you believe that we have already run out of it?” Troy asked the group as he and Abed stood up from their seats.  
“Yes.” Shirley, Annie, Pierce, Britta and Jeff answered at the same time. But their friends were already walking out of the cafeteria talking about items to buy for their cosplay.  
“Nerds” Jeff whispered.  
“Leave them alone,” said Annie laughing. “I think they’re cute.”  
“Gay.”  
“Pierce! We’ve talked about this, that’s none of our business. Also, whatever it is, we’ll support them. Right, Shirley?” Britta asked.  
“Yes. Why are you asking ME that?”  
“Oh, nothing. I was just making sure.”  
They stared at each other for a second until the dean arrived to talk to them.  
“I hope I see you all...” He looked at Jeff. “At the dance next week.”  
Jeff rolled his eyes, and the rest of the group laughed.

It was Friday night, and Troy and Abed had just finished watching A New Hope. Abed was looking for The Empire Strikes Back’s DVD while Troy checked his phone.  
“So are we doing the cosplay next week?”  
“Yes. We have to buy dark blue clothes for you, so you go as Reggie. I wanted to buy a trench coat but they’re too expensive. Abed complained.  
“Well, how about a bathrobe?”  
“You’re a genius.” Abed’s comment made Troy smile. “I’m sure Jeff must have one, right?”  
“We could sneak into his apartment tomorrow.”  
“Mmm, tomorrow is too risky. I think it’s better on a Tuesday when he goes to therapy.”  
“How do you know that?”  
“I know stuff. Now, let’s watch the best sequel ever made.”  
Abed sat on his sofa, next to his best friend and pressed play.

They were enjoying the movie until a particular scene took them off guard. Han Solo and Leia kissed and as Han was leaving, Leia said: “I love you”. Involuntarily, the two boys quoted Han’s response “I know.” Troy and Abed looked at each other as if they just had a deja vu.  
“This is the first time we’re watching this movie together,” Abed said as he paused the film.  
“Are you saying that because you’re sure or because you’re having doubts?” Troy asked.  
“I… I don’t know. It felt like-”  
“Deja vu?”  
Abed froze trying to remember when did that happen. He hated not remembering things. Abed watched the movie several times, but he hadn’t watched it in almost two years now that he was thinking about it. It was no possible.  
“Abed? Are you okay?” Troy was worried about his friend, who was speechless and staring at the TV.  
“It isn’t possible.”  
“What?”  
“I haven’t watched this movie in almost two years. It is not possible. We never watched it together.”  
“Well, I’m sure that we quoted that scene or something.”  
“Are you SURE sure?” Abed asked.  
“I don’t know. Why don’t we continue watching the movie?” Troy suggested. “We can think about that later.”  
They resumed the movie and continued with their marathon with no problems. But even if they didn’t say anything, not knowing why it felt like a deja vu was very annoying.  
Troy and Abed finished their marathon at almost 3 am and were too tired to do anything else, so they went to bed.

The next day they were having breakfast while watching an episode of Cougar Town but neither Abed nor Troy were paying attention.  
“We never watched The Empire Strikes Back together until last night,” Abed said out of nowhere. “And I would let this go if it was only me who felt weird, but I know you felt something too.”  
“I don’t know what to tell you, dude. It’s bothering me, but we talked a lot about Star Wars when we had the paintball war a few months ago.”  
“No.” Abed looked at his friend’s eyes with determination. “There are a lot of things off. And I’m not only talking about this.”  
“What do you mean?”  
“Now that we’re preparing for Halloween I haven’t been able to stop wondering what happened last year. And for some reason when I think about the “I love you. I know” thing, my mind tells me that somehow those two things are related. Maybe we watched the movie at the party.”  
“What?” Troy was speechless. “I made the same connection.”  
“What?” Abed didn’t know what to say or what to think.  
“This is wrinkling my brain.”  
“Troy”  
“Abed?”  
“We have to know what happened last Halloween. We can interview the people that were at the party and then we can have one of those big boards with photos and clues and connections.”  
“I’m in. I’ve always wanted a reason to do that.”  
“I’ll look for a board right now,” Abed said as he went to the bedroom. He came back with a whiteboard, cardboard, markers and thread. He was ready to do it. “Cool. Cool cool cool. Now let’s try to remember what happened.”  
And then the pair wrote down all they could remember. Troy’s memory was a bit better than Abed’s, but they didn’t know the reason.  
After almost two hours and calling their friends to have more information, they had a wall almost full of things that happened that night. But it was not enough.  
“So, we know that we went to the party. That we somehow destroyed the study room and almost the entire college.” Abed was nodding as Troy was listing the most important things. “We know everyone’s costumes, except Shirley.”  
“Oh and that Jeff’s jacket was destroyed. He still cries about it sometimes.” Troy looked at him. “I caught him crying once and he told me.”  
“That makes sense.” Troy took a second to examine the wall. “We know that Shirley and Chang had sex.”  
“Yes. That is our biggest evidence. Chang’s voicemail. Let’s hear it again.”  
Troy played the voicemail.

October 31st, 11:20 p.m.  
“Troy this is Chang. There’s not much time. I don’t think we’re gonna make it. Listen, if you survive, please spread this message for me: Shirley and I totally did it.” Shirley interrupted: “Chang, what are you doing?”. “Nothing,” Chang replied. Then Shirley screams and Chang says “I gotta go.”

Abed was staring at the wall. “So, we know that someone or something was attacking us.”  
“But no one died that night, right?”  
“That’s the weirdest thing. Chang said the word survive. That implies that people were dying or something like that. You don’t remember anything else?”  
“I don’t know man. For some reason, me and the dean are the ones with the best memory. But even that is almost nothing.”  
“We need to interrogate the dean” Abed suggested.  
“But we’ve already called him. Oh, you mean interrogate him for real?”  
“Good cop, bad cop and everything.”  
“Awesome. But maybe tomorrow, it’s getting late and I’m hungry.”  
“First time tomorrow then.”

The dean arrived at their apartment at 10 a.m.  
“Oh, hi guys!” He said as he entered the apartment and looked around. “Is Jeffrey here yet? What is that on the wall?”  
“I’m sorry about this dean,” Troy said as Abed closed the door and the dean panicked.  
At first they were not violent, but as time passed and it was clear that the dean barely remembered that night, they started screaming and even slapped his face one. By noon they were tired because they didn’t go to bed the previous night, so they let the dean go.

The next day their friends invited them to Jeff’s place for a movie night. They decided to go because they could ask them more questions in person. When they arrived, they realised it was an intervention.  
“Guys, what is going on?” Britta asked.  
“What do you mean?”  
“I mean, why did the dean called me crying yesterday because you traumatised him? And why are you suddenly obsessed with last year’s Halloween party?”  
The pair explained what they’ve been doing as the study group looked at them shocked.  
“When was the last time you have slept?”  
“Oh, you know. Sometimes we fall asleep for a few minutes, but then we continue with our investigation.” Troy said as it was the most normal thing to do.  
“I think there’s something else here. What made you start investigating this?”  
“Britta,” Jeff sighed. “Stop playing the therapist. We’ve had enough nonsense already.”  
Troy and Abed looked at each other and said “Star Wars” in unison.  
Jeff was staring at them with anger, and Shirley tried to calm him down.  
“Jeffrey, behave.”  
“Our best clue is that voicemail of Chang saying that he and Shirley had sex.”  
Shirley looked at them, and now Jeff was trying to calm her down.  
“Dude, not the time. We gotta go.” Troy said to Abed. 

Troy and Abed were leaving Jeff’s apartment when they heard Pierce coming after them.  
“Hey! Wait a minute.”  
The boys turned around and saw their friend approaching them.  
“Look, I also wanna know what happened that night. I suspect those in there want to know too, but they are too scared to face reality.”  
“Cool”  
“Do you remember anything?” Troy asked.  
“Not really.”  
They both looked disappointed. No one seemed to remember anything, and it was becoming frustrating.  
“But, I think I can find a way to know the truth. So as you know, some people saw the army arriving at the college; my theory is that they had something to do.”  
Troy and Abed looked at each other, asking themselves if their friend was serious or just pulling a prank. The day after the incident, they read something about the army, but they didn’t pay attention, so there was a chance Pierce was trying to help.  
“Say we believe you, what do you plan to do?”  
“Well, I have money, and I know some people from the army” Troy and Abed looked at him, confused. “Long story. The thing is, maybe I can make someone tell us what happened or at least give us the tapes from the security cameras of the campus.”  
The pair agreed, said goodbye to Pierce and continued their way to their apartment. 

“So there’s no way Pierce is going to get those security tapes, right?”  
“I don’t think so,” Abed answered as he ate his ice cream. After the failed intervention they decided to go to eat something and talk about what to do next. “Maybe he was not serious.”  
“Or maybe he was, and he is going to get arrested or something.”  
“Yep.” They both sighed. “I think we have to give up on this.”  
Troy looked at his friend, worried. They both were super into this investigation, but as always, Abed was twice as much invested. He loved Abed’s passion, and he also wanted answers, but they were going a bit too far. And they had no more clues.  
“Maybe there are questions that we’re not supposed to know the answers to,” Troy said as he looked at Abed.  
“I think so” He sounded sad and he was staring at a wall. Not even focused on his ice cream anymore.  
“Maybe a dreamatorium session will cheer you up, what do you say?” Troy asked his friend, who looked at him and nodded.  
“That sounds great. But first, let’s buy more ice cream.” Abed smiled at his friend. He was glad to have someone who would understand how important some things are for him. It was nice to have a friend like Troy.  
As they both were waiting silently for their turn to buy ice cream to take home, Abed decided to say something. He usually didn’t express how he felt because he didn’t know how.  
“Thanks,” He said, getting Troy’s attention. “I know I’m not easy to deal with sometimes. But you’re like Reggie. He’s always there for the Inspector. Even when the Inspector is annoying and on various occasions leads them to death traps. Reggie never blames him. He helps him and is always with him. Like you.”  
“Abed” Troy didn’t know what to say. He was about to cry. So he decided to continue with his friend’s metaphor. “Reggie will always be there for him, no matter how many Constables come and go. Reggie was lonely before meeting the Inspector but decided to follow him, and he finally was able to be himself.”  
“Well Reggie had friends, I don’t think he was lonely.” He stopped talking, ”But yeah, that’s cool. Cool cool cool.”  
They did their handshake and started making plans for their Halloween costumes on their way home.

A few days passed, and everything went back to ‘normal’. Abed and Troy focused on their cosplay and stopped investigating. The only problem was that Pierce was nowhere to be found. The first two days they didn’t give much thought, but on wednesday the study group was starting to miss him. By thursday, they decided to go to his mansion to see if he was ok and freaked out when he wasn’t there.  
“Calm down, maybe he’s trying to teach us a lesson again and is expecting us to worry about him” Jeff tried to calm them down. He wasn’t sure he believed the words he was saying, but someone had to keep it together.  
“I’m not sure” Troy murmured, and Abed looked scared.  
“Guys?” Annie asked.  
They ended up telling the group about their conversation with Pierce, and it made it even worse.  
“Hey! But maybe he’s just staying there a bit longer?” Britta was trying to not think of the worst. “Whatever ‘there’ is. Maybe he reunited with his friend and was invited to stay a few days, right?”  
“Yeah!” Shirley nodded. “I’m sure he’s okay.”  
“Look, if he doesn’t appear by saturday, then we can freak out. Deal?” The group accepted Jeff’s offer because the other option was to freak out even more. 

The following day the Halloween party was taking place. Troy and Abed didn’t know if it was right or not to go, taking into account that one of their friends maybe was dead or arrested and it was their fault. They decided to go anyways, the rest of the group agreed that it was best to act normal. Whatever normal was at that point.

They had been there for almost an hour, and all of them were ready to leave. It was impossible to try to enjoy a party while feeling that guilty and worried. They didn’t even try to dance; the six of them were sitting silently on a table.  
Then Pierce showed up. His clothes were ruined and covered in mud and blood, but because it was a Halloween party, no one paid attention to the man. He looked around the cafeteria, looking for his friends. Until Annie saw him and ran to his direction to hug him and everyone followed her, relieved to see their friend alive and well.  
“Pierce, where the hell were you?”  
“Oh, Jeffrey. It’s a long story. I-...”  
“Is that blood?” Britta interrupted him.  
“Dear Lord” Shirley uttered. Troy and Abed looked at each other feeling guilty. It was all their fault.  
“Oh yeah, but it’s not mine. Leonard hugged me when I arrived. It’s fake blood.” Everyone sighed in relief.  
“But what about your clothes?” Annie asked.  
“It’s my costume! I wanted to dress as a zombie but didn’t have time.”  
“Oh.”  
“Abed. Troy” The pair looked at him as he opened his bag and took out a couple of DVDs. “I got it.”  
“Is that…?”  
“Yes.” And as Pierce answered, Troy and Abed took the DVDs and ran to find somewhere in the college to watch them.  
“You’re the best Pierce!” Troy screamed as he ran with his friend. Pierce smiled.

They found a classroom with a bunch of old TVs. The room was usually locked, but everyone was at the party, even security, so no one heard them destroying the door’s glass.  
“Cool. Cool cool cool,” whispered Abed as he was plugging a DVD player.  
“Dude, we did it! I mean Pierce did it. But we did it!” Troy’s happiness was contagious.  
“Yes.” Abed was going through the DVDs, reading the dates. “Okay, this one says October 31st 2010 Greendale Community College - First two hours. I will put this one first” He said, then he sat next to his friend on a desk ready to know the truth finally.  
They saw everything. At first, it was a typical Halloween party until everyone started running and screaming. Then…  
“Zombies??!!” Troy was shocked. “What the hell?”  
“It was a zombie attack. But why did it start? How did it end? ” Abed had a million questions forming in his mind. “Did we die? Why is ABBA playing? Wait, how can we hear this? I thought security cameras didn’t record sound.”  
“Maybe the army hacked something. I don’t know.”  
“I will look into that later.”  
They continued watching the complete chaos. Their eyes couldn’t leave the screen. Troy and Abed saw themselves running and their friends getting bitten one by one.  
The DVD stopped, and they immediately put the next one. At this point, almost everyone was a zombie.  
“Wait, where are we?”  
“Maybe we didn’t get bitten yet.” Abed was looking for him and Troy on the screen, but they didn’t appear. The video was a compilation of the recordings from the whole campus, so the scenery changed from time to time.  
“Abed look! We are with Jeff. We were alive!” Troy pointed to the screen. They were running with Jeff to the library in the basement. “I think we were looking for a way out.”  
It was difficult to hear the conversations clearly because of the screams and the music playing. But in the basement, it was only them.  
“Dude! It’s us! We were going to save everyone. We’re awesome.”  
They did their handshake and eagerly waited to see themselves saving the day. 

“Holy shit,” They both said when Jeff opened a door and a bunch of zombies appeared.  
“We were the last ones left,” Abed said, looking at his friend.  
They had to pause the video for a second because it was too much.  
“I’m going to text Jeff. They have to come and see this.” They looked at the TV; zombies were attacking their friend.  
“Yes. Ready to see what happens next?”  
“I think so.” Troy was scared. He wanted to watch it; it was like he and his friend were starring in a horror movie. But at the same time, he remembered that they actually lived through that.  
They saw themselves running from the zombies and going to the window.  
“Abed! We went through a zombie apocalypse, and we lived!” They were happy until they saw what happened next.  
Troy and Abed were surrounded by zombies, and there was no time to escape. Abed decided to help his friend get out to save everyone.  
“You sacrificed yourself, for me?”  
“Yeah, that seems right.”  
“I love you,” Troy said in the video.  
“I know,” replied Abed in the present.  
“Holy shit” Troy was surprised, and Abed was speechless. “We- I- I said that.”  
Abed was still looking at the TV, seeing himself attacked by zombies. “Did you mean it?”  
“What?” Troy was screaming on the inside. He knew the answer. Of course he meant that, but he was surprised that at some point in the past he was able to accept those feelings and express them. They were going to die anyway, but now?  
“Troy” Abed looked at his friend. He wasn’t sure that they were just quoting Star Wars. Seeing himself sacrificing for Troy seemed right. He would do that only for him.  
Abed never knew about friendship before Troy, and everything he knew about romantic love was from TV and films. He saw thousands of friends becoming couples and, to be honest, those were his favourites. Most of them already behaved like couples before, but they had something else. Abed never understood what that ‘something’ was, but maybe he already knew that.  
He looked at his friend on the screen, running to save everyone and being attacked by Shirley and him. Troy looked at Abed with so much love; it was like he forgot his friend was a zombie. Or maybe he didn’t care.  
Abed was scared. He had never had a best friend before Troy, and he knew that expressing romantic feelings between friends sometimes ruined the relationship. But sometimes it worked perfectly.  
They’ve already taken that chance, maybe because they were going to die, but he knew deep down that it was genuine. So he had to know.  
“Did you mean it? Yes or no?” Troy looked at him as he asked. His friend didn’t answer. Maybe he misinterpreted the situation. Abed stood up and was ready to leave when Troy grabbed his hand.  
“Wait” He wasn’t sure what to say. Troy didn’t want his friend to leave the room like this. But he was scared. He wished he had the guts to answer but what if Abed got mad at him?  
Troy was afraid to lose the first real best friend he had, and for what? Romantic love? They were fine like this, and they acted almost like a couple anyways. Minus the kisses, he would love that… but what did his friend think about it? Troy looked at his friend; Abed was looking at him, waiting for an answer. Maybe it was worth it.  
“Was it Star Wars, or was it you?”  
“It was me,” Troy said with fear. “Do you… do you have a problem with that?”  
Abed had watched several scenes like this. When a character expresses their feelings, the other one never answers with yes or no. He knew what he had to do.  
He kissed Troy, and his friend kissed him back.  
“I don’t have a problem.”  
“I see” Troy laughed nervously. They kissed again and again and again, and it felt right. Nothing had ever felt more right.  
“So that’s why we never want to watch zombie movies.”  
“That was the best zombie movie ever.”  
They heard a quiet “Aww” coming from outside followed by a loud “Shhhh”. Troy and Abed decided to ignore it for now and kissed again. They would return to the party later.


End file.
